Color, glorious color. Don't be afraid of it!

In post process editing, no matter how many times I tell myself to desaturate an image in order to try something different, or make yet another black and white, I can hardly ever bring myself to do it! I am just naturally drawn to splashing, vivid color. And there's so many ways you can apply it to your image when you edit. Whether it be deepening the blue of a sky, bringing out the greens in a landscape shot, painting some pink on a girl's lips in a portrait, I love it all. It doesnt even have to be anything outrageous, it can be so much as popping the color of a flag or a piece of fruit that changes the draw of your entire image.
With today's software, and wherever your creativity and imagination can take you, photographers are able to colorize anything in the most dramatic ways. There's no limit. And if you want a subject's hair electric pink, you do it! If you want to create a fall look when it's not even fall, now it's easier than ever. The CS6 color replace tool will be your best friend!
I've chosen several of my own works to showcase here, just to urge anyone on as to how fun, different, magical and quirky working with colors can be. What MORE can you do with that one photo by getting crazy with color?

Gear used: Canon EOS 60D, Canon 5D Mark III 

85mm 1.8, 70-200mm 2.8 IS, 10-22mm wide angle

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...trees dont always have to be green, do they?

Add caption

Fall, nothing like it. I didn't alter color here at all, just amped it up a bit.

By texturing in some bokeh color, 3 birds on a wire against a stark gray sky looks much cooler after.

Other images that whisper, speak and scream

There is no shortage of pictures that can be viewed by anyone and everyone, so many photographers contribute from all over the world to make up such an eclectic, creative palate; photo journalists with their real life captures, wedding photographers who share romantic moments, wildlife photographers who venture where many of us never will, celebrity and high fashion photographers who display clothes and people in the public eye in very opulent and glamorous showcases, and so on. Then there's the random everyday photographer like me and many others, who simply like taking photos of different things, pushing the creative envelope, and expressing in a photo the image that was in our head.
We're all moved, inspired, provoked, drawn in, and touched by different images we see. I see so much greatness everywhere it's hard to not be floored by how talented some photographers are, whereas others just seem to keep regurgitating the same types of photos, never breaking new ground or challenging themselves. I love so many photographers but the late Herb Ritts, ever since I was a teenager, is by far a cut above the rest. His work is so absolutely his and identifiable as his, the style he created was ingenious.
I see so many cool new methods and styles I can't wait to learn and attempt, and I see my fair share of images that strike me, too. Not many do so much so that I remember them, but the ones here absolutely did, from many different genres, some of these photos I have admired for over 5 years. Whimsical to gritty to sexual to dark to glorious to endearing and personal. I wanted to share them here to display such a great creative array of works and to demonstrate how fun and introspective various styles can be. Names/Links to the actual photographer are captioned.
What single image did you see today that made you take pause?

Hunter Leone, Three Nails Photography
http://www.threenailsphotography.com/

David & Victoria Beckham
Photographed by Steven Klein for W Magazine (this whole series is hotnessss, I LOVE it)
http://www.wmagazine.com/people/celebrities/2007/08/beckhams_steven_klein_s/photos 

"End of the Line" by Chris Sista
https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrissista/6027727871/in/faves-carriehamptonphotography/

Bob Marley picture and child. Photo credit unknown

Maybe Sparrows Place Etsy Shop
https://www.etsy.com/listing/104359225/new-york-city-8x10-photograph-balloons?ref=favs_view_11

Herb Ritts.
Rest in Peace you amazing visionary. Often imitated, never duplicated.
http://www.herbritts.com/images/

This image of Robert Peraza who lost his son on 9/11 and just found his name at the meorial, became the symbol image of the Twin Tower attack anniversary.
Photography, Justin Lane for Getty Images
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/12/911-robert-peraza-photo-anniversary_n_958204.html

This screams spring! I just love it. Simplicity at it's best.
Aimee Pool Photography https://www.flickr.com/photos/aimeepool/6977419765/in/faves-carriehamptonphotography/

Seeing this photo and seeing this on TV in action were two separate experiences, lol, but all hail Brandi, basically.
Brandi Chastain famously celebrates after scoring the winning shootout goal against China during the 1999 World Cup. Photo credit unknown.


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Austin & Melanie | Engaged

Some engagement shoots just come together. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, the clouds are parting...None of that was going on when this shoot began. Hahaaa. But the three of us started having so much fun and were pretty much just giving the middle finger to the VERY strong wind and cold, that maybe 20 minutes into the shoot, the weather did exactly that, and we certainly took advantage. 
I chose Eagle Island State Park for this completely cute couple's engagement shoot. They wanted a rustic, summer country feel to their photos, and honestly there were so many cool spots to get a shot of, I could have kept going for hours and not run out of new points of background view. The props they brought (which are always fun) were Mr. & Mrs. customized baseball caps, a thick western rope, cowboy boots, and a vintage looking sign with a funny message and the date of their wedding. 
I love it when couples have their own ideas, too, about shots they want, angles, etc. but it's even more of a treat when you get a couple who is seriously having fun during the shoot and are naturals at really just going with the flow and 'acting' as you go. Aside from this couple having the most gorgeous eyes, they were pretty involved the whole shoot, but way easy to give direction to. We all jumped in my husband's Ford F250 diesel and started tooling around the park, jumping in and out of the truck, leaving doors open, roaming the field and abandoned shacks, climbing on things, owning the place! Yeeeah! 

Gear used: Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS, Canon 17-40 wide angle EF,Canon 85mm 1.8 EF, Promaster variable ND filter
© carrie hampton 2014

Brenizer Method used here 23 photos stitched together (Because I HAD to have the old,
cool ceiling in the pic, with all its criss-crossing architecture)

Tying the knot!

She said yes..

Old paper frame texture can give this type of photo a country chic feel, IMO.
I love applying texture frames

Shigemi the spirit & graveyard angel, and editing the macabre & otherworldy

My husband who's a fighter pilot in the military had to go to Texas for a month of training, so the kids and I went with and I was looking forward to it because I have family that lives in Texas and what a great opportunity to spread the inventive wings and document some new places in photos, along with being able to add my family to them. My sister Shigemi is one of the coolest, most down to earth, open-minded women, so when I suggested a graveyard shoot, she fully agreed. She also has an affinity for graveyards, she got married on the grounds of one, Valley of the Temples back home in Hawaii.

Down the street from my brother's house there is a historic graveyard, with towering statues, tombstones the size of a dinner tables and massive crypts. Walking through the graveyard was A TRIP because when I started walking through and looking at some of the graves, all cracked and grated away and worn, some of the dates on them went as far as as 1820 or so. I.e., John Smith, 1850-1910. Jane Doe, 1899-1935. There were dates that even read the meager span of only 1830-1835, :(   Some of those graves had angels carved into them that had started chipping away long ago. The trees in the cemetery seemed to mirror the lifetime of the graves they shaded, they were just as gnarled and old looking. So overall, the place was so fascinating and humbling and had SUCH a deep aura, I didn't even know where to start. 

And of course, statement to myself being; Can I capture the essence and feel and history of this place? Do it justice? Do right by it and the people that had lain here since for so long? I didn't want to make the place look dark, or seedy, or kitschy/cartoonish Halloween creepy. And I didn't want to make my sister look like a demon or a witch. I just wanted...different. Glowing. Otherworldly. Spiritual. Macabre in an ethereal way. Whether I accomplished that I don't know (you the viewer of this blog can tell me with feedback and spill your guts with your own opinion on anything you see on this thing) but I do know that once I had the photos done and some of the panoramas pieced together, I knew exactly how I wanted to edit them to complete the overall look of how the place made me feel. 

Gear used: Canon EOS 60D, 18-135mm 5.6 EF, 10-22mm Wide Angle, 

Canon 85mm EFS. Edited with various uses of textures (grain & canvas), borders and photoshop brushes.

"Visiting". I wanted to make this one look as though she was doing exactly that, walking out of her tombstone.

I liked this one because it almost looks, to me, as if she is saying goodbye and going back to her 'home'. She could disappear as she walked away any second.

A "dark angel" B&W version of first image

I wanted a porcelain, pasty, lifeless look for her here.
Edited with grain on the tombstone and a canvas texture on the background

This was my first attempt ever at Brenizer method. It kiiiinda worked out, it created a pretty good 3D effect with her, but the trees in background are in focus rather than bokeh blur. This is a good example of the cool shit you can really do in Photoshop, from borders to stars, to flares to adding contrast for a bit more of an ominous effect.

The Brenizer Method obsession

I have an obsession with the Brenizer Method (a.k.a. bokeh panorama), and getting atleast one shot from each session done like that. For those unfamiliar, this method is basically piecing together the puzzle of a photo, in sections, not just focus on subject click, focus on subject click. Brenizer Method allows the photographer to include major background/peripheral area around the subject, without sacrificing distance from the subject AND without sacrificing your depth of field. It actually allows you to expand your depth of field. 
Usually you have to move back from subject to include the background, which makes your subject very small, cant even see them and their details. But to get that great blurry depth of field, you have to move closer, therefor sacrificing background. So this method really allows both, it also creates a very cool 3D look, IMO. 
I for sure haven't mastered this method, which is very very difficult to say the least, but I have practiced it enough to atleast be able to piece together a viewable photo! Whereas before my subjects were all mangled in the final product :/   Photoshop CS photo merge or Autopano programs are needed to stitch together the photos making up that one. NYC based photographer Ryan Brenizer who started this method has been known to use up to 75 photos for some of his images, uh yah as of right now I say hell no to that and have never used more than 33, I believe. You also need a wide open aperture to do this look, so sometimes filters are needed, to darken the light coming in so it's not completely blown out. I have an assortment of filters but the one that is the most genius invention is the Promaster Variable ND filter, which works like a rotating shade on your lens, lightening and darkening. Cannot endorse that tool enough! 
Below are some examples of this method on some of my various subjects, and a few links at the bottom to Ryan's work, as well. 

© carrie hampton

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You would never be able to capture and include all 3 arches in this photo
with just a one time point and shoot shot.

This method is also perfect for including an entire room in a photo, which you cant do with just one shot

This is one of my favorites, as it seems like you the viewer are almost walking up the path, too.
The path extends down to meet you

A great example of the slight 3D effect 

This is a pretty classic example of wanting to take a family photo up close, but not wanting to use a wide angle lens to fit them all, which really distorts everyone. This is maybe 6 photos pieced together to complete the shot.

This method allows you to create the look of actually being IN something like a row of corn.